Nothing says Re-O-Week like no tutorials and a black out

In the wake of Victoria’s proposed University Council changes, VUWSA has blacked out the main windows in the Hub to represent the “blacking out” of the student voice.

VUWSA said that Here is an Easter egg for those of you who thought to highlight the text.

“Shot bro, you highlighted the text to see what was underneath,” President Rick Zwaan told Salient. He then busted out some super ninja moves—wow!

Under the proposed changes, seven members of the University Council would be appointed by a committee rather than election, with four more appointed by the Minister for Tertiary Education and one more, the Vice-Chancellor, appointed by the Council itself.

As a result, students would have no direct say over who their two Council representatives would be.

Vic is the only University in the country to propose getting rid of student and staff elections.

VUWSA has been particularly vocal in its opposition, with the tagline “Don’t let Victoria Blackout Democracy” making the rounds on most social media platforms.

According to students, the rest of this blacked out text will use lorem ipsum, because you probably get the idea by now and endless meta commentary about your sneaky highlighting skills is difficult to come up with and gets old pretty quickly. Also, Proin lacus nibh, molestie vel faucibus ut, vehicula ut nisi. Curabitur with a cabbage and rhoncus velit. Nulla vel arcu consequat mi vehicula elementum.

Dominion Post writer Dave Armstrong has joined VUWSA in opposing to the process of appointment rather than election.

“Can we trust this process? I’m not sure,” Armstrong wrote on 13 July. “Can you imagine the appointments process? ‘Should we appoint President Molotov of the Bolshevik Tendency who was recently arrested for burning a flag, or young Boffin who is far less popular but is currently completing a Masters in Accounting and runs the university computer club?’”

Not overreacting in the slightest, Armstrong’s column was accompanied by a picture of the Tiananmen Square Massacre.

The Tertiary Education Union has also come out against the removal of elected staff seats.

“Our position is that all staff should elect staff on Council. The Canterbury, Otago, Massey, Auckland and Lincoln universities are all taking that approach,” said TEU President Sandra Grey.

When asked for Vic’s response to VUWSA’s protest, a University spokesperson told Salient that “all views [were] considered” during the consultation process, but refused to make any further comment.

The second round of consultation on the makeup of Council will take place until Friday. There will be student consultation forums at Kelburn on Monday, and at Pipitea and Te Aro on Wednesday.

For those of you still making comments like “VUWSA stole the sun”, “how about they don’t fuck with the sunlight”, or “Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit”, you can find more about VUWSA’s petition on their Facebook page.

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The student magazine of Victoria University of Wellington. Salient is available on campus free each Monday during term. Funded in part by Victoria University of Wellington students, through the Student Services Levy.